Spring 2013 - 62777 - PA388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

Economics, Innovation, and Security

Course Overview

Topics for these policy seminars have included environmental and natural resources policy, health-service delivery policy, social welfare policy, transportation policy, science and technology policy, international affairs, national security, urban and regional growth policy, and political campaigns.

Section Description

Economics, Innovation, and Security examines the relationships among resources, technologies, and national power as countries try to protect themselves in an uncertain global environment. The course will focus on how countries convert latent power (wealth) into realized power (especially military forces); the challenges that limit efficient management of defense effort; the importance of developing new technologies and the role of government and especially militaries in promoting innovation; the role of particular, scarce resources (e.g., oil) in global affairs; the causes and effects of globalization of trade and foreign investment in high technology; the debate over the effect of intense economic ties on the likelihood of conflict; and the effects of peacetime defense investment and wartime mobilization on the strength of the broader economy.